Global Workplace Conference at Forefront of Labor and Employment Law

International and comparative workplace law was the focus of a dynamic videoconference held on February 15 & 16, 2008 in collaboration with the LSU Law Center, Seton Hall University School of Law, and Thomas Jefferson School of Law. The event featured internationally recognized speakers on the topic of Expanding Intellectual Borders with International and Comparative Workplace Law.

This was the first conference in the United States aimed at instructing law professors about global workplace law and its place in the curriculum of law schools, according to the conference organizers. The conference was co-sponsored by the Thomas Jefferson Center for Law and Social Justice and Center for Global Legal Studies, along with Cambridge University Press.

LSU Professor William R. Corbett, the Frank L. Maraist Professor of Law, was instrumental in bringing the videoconference to the LSU Law Center. Corbett is co-author of the first English-language international and comparative employment law casebook, The Global Workplace International and Comparative Employment Law – Cases and Materials, published by Cambridge University Press in 2007.

Opening remarks were provided by Dean Rudy Hasl of Thomas Jefferson School of Law, Dean Patrick Hobbs of Seton Hall, and LSU Law Chancellor Jack Weiss. Keynote speaker was Roger Blanpain, Professor Emeritus at the Faculty of Laws of the Universities of Leuven, Belgium and Tilburg, the Netherlands. Numerous panelists addressed topics such as “Comparative Law in Action: Country Perspectives;” “Crossing Borders: Practicing Workplace Law in a Globalizing World;” and, “Teaching Beyond Our Borders: The Pedagogy of International and Comparative Workplace Law.”